Silence can be deadly

Having crucial conversations to tackle five key problem areas will help business initiatives succeed

When any company announces unexpectedly that the chief executive or a senior manager is moving on to seek fresh challenges or pursue other interests, most people assume something has gone badly wrong.

Once the dust settles, it usually emerges that a key initiative or prized project has hit a brick wall. It might relate to a delayed product release, cost savings failing to materialise after a merger or acquisition, or a new IT system going way over budget. Whatever the case, there will be repercussions for expenditure, revenue, the short-term health of the organisation and people's careers.

Of course there is no guarantee that a corporate project will succeed. However, according to a recent study conducted by two United States-based firms, VitalSmarts and The Concours Group, failure can generally be traced to five common business problems and the quality of communication around them.

The study, entitled 'Silence Fails: The Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution', found that getting things wrong in these areas ultimately contributed to an astonishing 85 per cent failure rate across various high-stakes business initiatives.

The findings were based on data collected since late 2005 from more than 1,000 executives and project management professionals in 40 US-based multinationals in different industries. The analysis covered more than 2,200 projects ranging from IT implementations valued at around US$10,000 to billion-dollar restructuring programmes.